Emotion regulation and cardiovascular stress habituation : a comprehensive exploration using cross-sectional and experimental approaches.

Poor emotion regulation is implicated in cardiovascular disease (CVD), possibly through maladaptive cardiovascular responses to psychological stress. However, research examining emotion regulation with cardiovascular stress responses is relatively mixed and inconclusive. Furthermore, research examining emotion regulation with cardiovascular stress habituation across repeated exposures, which is a more accurate representation of everyday stress experiences, has been limited. As such, this dissertation aimed to comprehensively explore the associations between different types of emotion regulation and cardiovascular habituation to repeated acute psychological stress via three independent studies. Study 1 (N = 453) examined associations between self-reported habitual emotion regulation tendencies (strategies, global abilities) and cardiovascular responses to a repeated cognitive stress task within a single laboratory visit. Study 2 (N = 196) examined associations between habitual emotion regulation strategies (expressive suppression, cognitive reappraisal) and cardiovascular responses to both cognitive and social phases of a repeated stress task across two separate laboratory visits. Study 3 (N = 244) experimentally manipulated the use of instructed suppression and examined the effects of instructed suppression on cardiovascular habituation to a repeated social stress task within a single laboratory visit. In Study 1, greater impulse control difficulties when distressed were associated with blunted cardiovascular responses during both stress tasks as well as impaired heart rate habituation across the repeated tasks. Habitual emotion regulation strategies were not associated with cardiovascular reactivity or habituation in this study. Similarly, in Study 2, no significant associations were found between the habitual emotion regulation strategies and cardiovascular habituation to repeated stress (neither cognitive nor social). However, habitual expressive suppression was associated with blunted heart rate responses during social (but not cognitive) stress at both visits. In Study 3, instructed suppression did not impact cardiovascular habituation to repeated stress, but was associated with greater habituation of negative affect. This dissertation offers preliminary evidence of an association between poor emotion regulation and blunted cardiovascular stress responding, thus suggesting potential implications for long-term physical health via adverse health behaviors. Furthermore, impulse control difficulties may be indirectly linked to CVD via poor cardiovascular habituation; however, no such associations were evident for self-reported (or instructed) emotion regulation strategies.